Thursday, April 23, 2009

Betty Never Looked So Hot - Mysterious Mose

To me, this is the cutest Betty Boop ever. It's animated by its designer, Grim Natwick.These scenes are from "Mysterious Mose", a great early Fleischer cartoon.The animation is early, before all the secondary animation principles were established and is done straight ahead through sheer talent and design. It's animated to the beats to a hot jazz track.Great drawings, pretty cartoon girls animated to great music is my favorite art form. It's an unbeatable combination.Each pose lands on a beat. I think it's a 12x beat if I remember correctly.I love the imaginative lip synch. You gotta remember too, that they had only been animating mouths for a year or so! This was all new to everybody.It's cool how Betty's part keeps moving from one side of her head to the other.You can't beat Horseshoe Crab hands either.

Remember when you asked me if I liked Betty Boop, and I said not really? Well, I want you to know that I think this is REALLY COOL! I had no idea she started out as a dog lady, which is hilarious. I really like all the mouth shapes used here, wow!

She started out as a dog because she was Bimbo's girlfriend (also a dog). It's too bad she didn't stay a dog, the Hays Office probably wouldn't have made a big deal about her overt sexiness. It appears that cartoon animals can get away with a lot more than a human character can. Who knows , she might have even survived into the '40s and beyond. All I know is, once they 'virginized' her, the Fleischer Studio lost a lot of its 'edge'and never really did find their way back.

I don't see Mysterious Mose on there, Soleil, so this won't really answer your question, but in case you or anyone else interested in earlyish Boop cartoons doesn't know already, archive.org has a freely downloadable collection of some that are now public domain:

The nose and hair adds to the design. I like how the bangs drop down. I prefer this design over the human one too. What I find strange is that her hair part moves around all the time. They must have wanted to keep the hair that dropped down on her face and the parting of the hair on the opposite side of where she was looking.

Just now, i recieved The Ultimate Betty Boop Collection in the mail...and guess what? Sure, 25 of her cartoons are there, but it has NONE of her early appearances like Mysterious Mose and Barnacle Bill, and just focuses on the usual roster of her cartoons! As if to add insult to injury, some of her other later shorts like Bamboo Isle and A Language All My Own are missing! And on top of that, the prints used are of the unrestored, crummy quality prints!